The Confederation Handbook (8 page)

The Sol system’s location at the center of the Confederation,
Earth’s vast consumer markets, the starship industry, trade
with Jupiter, the asteroid belt, Luna, and Mars, all contribute to
making the Halo the second greatest spaceport in the Confederation
(after Jupiter), with 12,000 starship movements daily. Halo citizens
enjoy a much higher standard of living than their cousins on Earth.

There are 1,820 independent
asteroid settlements in the Sol system: 1,485 in the main belt, 183
in the Jovian Trojan points, 137 in the Apollo Amour asteroids, 3 in
the Oort cloud, and the remaining 12 distributed across the outer
system. Total population is estimated to be 1,200,000,000. Most of
these settlements are fiercely independent. Since 2150 they have been
founded by Halo inhabitants who wanted to break free of Govcentral
restrictions, groups from Belt settlements which became
overpopulated, and various other breakaway movements.

As with the Confederation as
a whole, just about every ideology and religion can be found among
the settlements. The Belt Alliance is the unifying government,
although it is a very loose union, and non-political, with 764 actual
members and most of the others affiliated. It is the Belt Alliance
that provides the representation for settlement citizens in the
Confederation Assembly. The main function of the Belt Alliance is to
fund and maintain a naval force which contributes to the overall
defense of the solar system.

This constitutes a separate,
and unique, political entity outside Govcentral’s sphere of
control.

History

Mars is the only planet in
the Confederation to be terraformed. With the development of the ZTT
drive, and now an abundance of “standardâ€

Kulu is an ethnic Christian
terracompatible planet 173 light-years from Earth, discovered in
2227.

Kulu orbits 152m km from its
star, giving it a 379-day year. Rotation takes 24 hours 8 minutes,
gravity is 97 percent standard. Its axial tilt is 1.5°, giving
moderate seasonal climate change.

Two-fifths of the surface
area of Kulu is land, distributed among nine major continents and
several archipelagos. Kulu has no polar continents, only ice caps.
There are four major oceans.

It has two moons: Quorn is
1,500km in diameter, and orbits 100,000km out, giving each orbit a
nine-day period. St. Mary is 2,300km in diameter, and orbits
490,000km out, giving it a six-week orbit. Both moons possess naval
bases, and the Kulu Corporation has a mining operation on St. Mary.

One hundred and seventy-five
stony-iron asteroids have been maneuvered into orbit 150,000km above
Kulu, forming a large zero-gee industrial base. Their combined
population is 18.5m.

Kulu’s capital city is Nova Kong, sited on the east coast of
the Althalia continent (the largest), 42° north of the equator,
with a population of 19m. The planetary population is 3.75bn, making
this the second most heavily populated planet after Earth. Emigration
to the planet itself is now closed, though the asteroid settlements
remain open to specialists.

The Kulu system has five
solid planets, including Kulu itself. The other four are:

There is a thin asteroid
belt between Ulvern and Bellrit, comprised mainly of stony-iron
rocks. A much larger belt orbits outside Bellrit, and supports 242
settlements. Their population is 50,000,000m.

There are also three gas
giants.

The Kulu Kingdom is composed
of the capital planet, Kulu itself, and the principality planets (in
order of discovery) Jerez, St. Albans, Nesko, Balurghat, Echtern,
Warwick, Shasta, and Obmey. The nine member stars occupy a roughly
ovoid shape fifty-seven light-years long, with Kulu itself the
closest to Earth and Ombey furthest away. Its Royal Navy scoutships
are still searching for new terracompatible planets; however, the
cost of funding the Shasta and Ombey principalities precludes another
colonization project being launched for another fifty years.

History

Kulu was settled in 2230 by
Richard Saldana, the chairman of the New Kong company (an asteroid
settlement in Earth’s O’Neill Halo), who transported all
the settlement’s industrial stations to an asteroid in orbit
around Kulu, and claimed the star system for himself. His reason for
moving (or escape, as he called it), was to liberate the New Kong
company from what he saw as the unnecessarily restrictive influence
of Govcentral, as well as its equally anti-capitalistic tax regime.

Saldana was himself of European aristocratic background, with proven
ancestral links to the British, Spanish and Greek royal families, a
pedigree which undoubtedly helped his family in their later elevation
to sovereign status. Although moving the New Kong industrial stations
out of Halo jurisdiction was an act of dubious legality, Govcentral
chose not to pursue Saldana. A naval action would probably only have
succeeded in damaging or destroying the stations, and invading what
was ostensibly an independent star system would have been politically
disastrous at a time when Govcentral desperately needed unlimited
access to colony planets in order to dump Earth’s surplus
population. Saldana’s venture had been meticulously planned
over several decades (he was eighty-seven when it happened), and
considerable effort had gone into filling New Kong with people
dissatisfied by both Govcentral and the alternatives offered by the
colony planets, the majority of which at that time were extremely
primitive.

Perhaps the most notorious
decision he took was to prohibit the Edenists from germinating a
habitat in orbit around Kulu’s gas giant Tarron, and setting up
their usual He3mining operation. He did this under the guise of
religious devotion, although he had never before in his life
demonstrated any religious tendencies. It is arguable that he was
himself considering the establishment of an He3mining corporation to
rival the Edenists, though Kulu at that time could never afford to
match what was already the largest industrial enterprise in
existence, and Saldana must have known this. Whatever the true
reason, the Kulu Kingdom remains completely independent of the
Edenists for its supplies of He3(see Gas giants,
page
17
).

With extensive modern manufacturing systems available in orbit around
Kulu, Saldana was quickly able to provide a sophisticated
infrastructure on the planet itself, attracting the kind of
middle-class professionals who would otherwise have remained on
Earth. With its burgeoning economy, Kulu was swiftly recognized as an
excellent investment, and capital poured in—with many of the
wealthier individual investors following it, raising its appeal still
further. The economic upward spiral of Kulu’s first century is
one that has never been repeated, despite innumerable attempts; the
economic and social factors both on Earth and across the
Confederation have changed too much since then. Richard Saldana was
simply the right man at the right time with the right idea.

Richard Saldana died in
2248, and his son Gerrald inherited what had become the Kulu
Corporation, which then consisted of the asteroid settlement and its
associated orbital industrial stations, the Tarron cloudscoop
operation, planetary utility services, a starship fleet, and various
planetary factories. In a move no less inspired than his father’s,
Gerrald called the settlement’s first election, but refused to
stand for any post. Instead it was a simple matter to ensure that his
placemen secured a majority in the Parliament, and the first action
of the new president, Dennis Mason (later Lord Mason), was to
introduce an act creating the position of a constitutional guardian
who would remain outside politics and safeguard the Kulu system’s
new-found liberty. The logical choice for this post was someone who
simply could not be bribed, so Gerrald Saldana’s appointment
was approved unanimously by Parliament, and his coronation was held
in 2250.

Constitution

The head of state is the
King, who has the right to levy taxes in defense of the Kingdom, and
is responsible for enforcing the Crown’s justice. In return for
fealty, the sovereign guarantees all his subjects the following
rights: (a) an elected assembly which can offer advice to the Crown,
pass laws subject to the royal seal of assent, and raise taxes to pay
for the said laws; (b) an independent judiciary and police force not
subject to Parliament’s control; (c) the right to own and use
property (widely referred to as the Capitalism Pledge, necessary to
placate investors and wealthy would-be colonists becoming nervous
that Gerrald was establishing a dictatorship).

Religion

The sovereign is also the
defender of the Christian faith throughout the Kingdom, a position
which wasn’t ratified by the Vatican until 2343. Although
atheists are allowed to immigrate, the devout of all other faiths are
refused entry. King Marcus granted considerable estates to the Church
in 2312, which have provided the synod with an independent income
ever since. Kulu priests are frequently assigned to Christianizing
missions on recently colonized planets.

The Monarchy

Gerrald Saldana took his duties as head of state very seriously,
virtually handing over management of the Kulu Corporation to his son
and daughter, Alastair and Cheloe, so that he could devote his
energies to proper government. He established a socialized health
service and several universities, as well as overseeing the formation
of a genuinely independent judiciary. In short, he did effectively
perform his role as constitutional guardian, cementing his family’s
power base. His greatest challenge came over the annexation of Jerez,
which was discovered by Kulu Corporation ships but was also claimed
by the Parma government. Up until that point, no government’s
jurisdiction had extended outside its own system (apart from the
Edenists’). As usual in times of national crisis, the
population rallied round its leader and, with Cheloe serving on one
of the starships which fought the Parma ships attacking the Tarron
cloudscoop, the Saldana dynasty became unchallengeable in Kulu from
this period onwards. Parma was defeated with the use of antimatter
weapons, its remaining industrial stations being confiscated in
reparation, and Jerez became a principality awarded to Cheloe
herself.

Since Gerrald’s
coronation, the greatest threat to the stability of the monarchy
occurred during the abdication crisis of 2432 (see Tranquillity,
page
127
). However, the subsequent reign of King Lukas did
much to repair the damage; he worked hard at eliminating the excesses
of court corruption (which by then was becoming dangerously
decadent), and along with Queen Anne enjoyed an extraordinarily high
level of public popularity and support.

The Saldana
Family

The King still owns the Kulu Corporation in its entirety (as well as
possessing the mineral rights of all planets and asteroids in the
Kingdom), and because of this he is the richest individual in the
whole Confederation today. The Kulu Corporation has expanded its
interests to include manufacturing of every kind, and owns all the
utilities on the capital planet and on each principality world. Also
it administers the Crown Estates, which account for 80 percent of the
land mass on each terracompatible planet, and it mines and supplies
He3in each Kingdom system. The Kulu Crown Bank, a Kulu Corporation
subsidiary, is the largest financial institution in the Kingdom, and
contends with the Jovian Bank for business throughout the
Confederation. It is the junior members of the Saldana family who run
the corporation, with the sovereign’s tenth sibling (see
Saldana Eugenics, below) as its president. A spell of commissioned
service in the Royal Navy is virtually compulsory for a Saldana,
certainly for one belonging to the upper echelon, i.e. destined for
public life. They normally serve a fifteen-year commission, although
some go on to make a career out of it. For them promotion is always
through merit, and several also hold high-ranking posts in the
Confederation Navy (again earned on merit).

There are probably as many as 350,000 direct descendants of Richard
Saldana alive today, three-quarters of whom are illegitimate. The
Saldanas clearly enjoy their pre-eminent position, and its associated
privileges, but rarely abuse it. Although all upper-echelon family
members are expected to marry, fathering children outside their
official marriages is not considered an abuse of privilege (rather a
consequence), and the family invariably pays a generous allowance to
the child’s mother (King Aaron allegedly sired 409 offspring).

The escapades of the junior
family members provide a constant source of amusement and gossip for
the entire Kingdom’s population, and indeed across the
Confederation as a whole.

Saldana
Eugenics and Hierarchy

Over the years, the Saldana
family has received considerable genetic modification, improving the
efficiency of both brain and body, and this process continues. They
are physically impressive in size and vigor, although most of them
possess a rather thin nose with a slight downward curve at the tip,
which has become their (in)famous distinguishing mark, and their life
expectancy is currently 180 plus. It’s a common saying that
Saldanas are like Edenists without the affinity gene.

All senior Saldanas undertake marriage, thus providing an ideal
example of the Christian family to the general public. The first ten
offspring of the King and Queen are grown in exowombs, and the eldest
child (always male) eventually becomes King of Kulu, with the next
eight assuming the thrones of the principality worlds (three
princesses are the norm), while the tenth child becomes President of
the Kulu Corporation. This same pattern is followed through every
generation, which allows further genetic modifications to be made to
the zygotes. After the tenth exowomb child has been birthed, the King
and Queen (usually still Crown Prince and Princess at the time) are
then free to conceive natural children. The usual number of these
subsequent offspring is three or four, who act as a reserve in case
any of the exowomb ten should be killed before assuming their
allotted station in life.